WARWICK — St. Anthony Community Hospital has agreed to a settlement with the National Labor Relations Board and workers regarding charges that the hospital violated the rights of workers trying to unionize.

The hospital agreed to the settlement after the board found merit in charges by health-care workers union SEIU 1199 that the hospital engaged in unfair labor practices in trying to interfere with a bid by workers to unionize, said Suzanne Sullivan, an attorney with the NLRB Region 2 office in Manhattan.

Under the agreement reached Thursday, the hospital admitted no wrongdoing, but agreed to post a notice throughout its facilities listing a litany of anti-union activities in which it will not engage.

Union sees settlement as victory

"I think it's a great thing, because they are accused of all this and it's true," said Ashley Von Hahsel, a certified nursing assistant at the hospital's Schervier Pavilion nursing facility. "They really did torment us during this whole campaign."

Deborah Marshall, spokeswoman for Bon Secours Charity Health System, the parent organization of St. Anthony, vigorously disputed any contention that the hospital violated the law.

"We are not anti-union," she said. "We believe that people have to make good judgments for themselves, and if that means going into the union, they're going into the union. But there was no admission by the Labor Relations Board about any wrongdoing."

In October, workers voted 121 to 118 in favor of unionizing certified nursing assistants and other workers, but the final result is still up in the air because pro-union workers challenged 11 additional ballots they said were cast by people not eligible to vote. The NLRB is still investigating those challenges.

Hospital says it only gave facts

The union maintains that anti-union activity by the hospital made the vote closer than it would otherwise have been.

"When we started, the workers overwhelmingly supported the union," said Amy Gladstein, director of new organizing for SEIU 1199. "The hospital had a ferocious anti-union campaign that really made workers feel like if they voted to unionize, they would lose their jobs."

Marshall maintained the hospital did nothing but give employees the information they needed to make an informed decision.

"Any time there is something of this nature, we try to provide balanced information and the truth," Marshall said, "and that is not always the case with the union."

By Christian Livermore, Times Herald-Record
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 Source: http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090120/BIZ/901200315

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